Which to use
“voulais” is a verb and “voulues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,216
- “voulais” frequency rank
- #41,070
- “voulues” frequency rank
- 42286
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | voulais | voulues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de vouloir. | Féminin pluriel de voulu. |
Where the eye mixes voulais and voulues
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. voulais and voulues follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses voulais with voulues
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: voulais is \vu.lɛ\ while voulues is \vu.ly\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
voulais is recorded at frequency rank #1,216, classified as averb, pronounced \vu.lɛ\. voulues is at rank #41,070, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vu.ly\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 42286, this pair ranks #226,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of voulais vs voulues
Shared letters: losuv. Private to "voulais": ai. Private to "voulues": e.
"voulais" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "voulues" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "voulais" for "voulues" ever safe?
Which is more common, "voulais" or "voulues"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "voulais" and "voulues" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "voulais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "voulues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #226,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "voulais" and "voulues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vouées vs voulues". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #226,761 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.